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Following our previous detection of ubiquitous H2O and O2 absorption against the far-UV continuum of stars located near the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, we present a serendipitously observed stellar occultation that occurred…

The goal is to determine the composition of Pluto's atmosphere and to constrain the nature of surface-atmosphere interactions. We perform high--resolution spectroscopic observations in the 2.33--2.36 $\mu$m range, using CRIRES at the VLT.…

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-27 E. Lellouch , C. de Bergh , B. Sicardy , H. U. Käufl , A. Smette

We explore the occurrence and detectability of planet-planet occultations (PPOs) in exoplanet systems. These are events during which a planet occults the disk of another planet in the same system, imparting a small photometric signal as its…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2017-12-27 Rodrigo Luger , Jacob Lustig-Yaeger , Eric Agol

Stellar occultations are an ideal way to characterize the physical and orbital properties of trans-Neptunian binary systems. In this research note, we detail the prediction and observation of a stellar occultation observed with NASA's IRTF…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-03-21 F. L. Rommel , B. C. N. Proudfoot , B. J. Holler , J. L. Ortiz , E. Fernández-Valenzuela

We present VLT eclipse photometry for the giant planet CoRoT-1b. We observed a transit in the R-band filter and an occultation in a narrow filter centered on 2.09 microns. Our analysis of this new photometry and published radial velocities,…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-13 M. Gillon , B. -O. Demory , A. H. M. J. Triaud , T. Barman , L. Hebb , J. Montalban , P. F. L. Maxted , D. Queloz , M. Deleuil , P. Magain

Recently published episodic spectral (Levesque and Massey, 2020) and high angular resolution (Montarges et al, 2020) observations of Betelgeuse suggest that the deep minimum of 2019-2020 was caused by an enhanced dust abundance in the…

We use astrometry of Pluto and other TNOs to constrain the sky location, distance, and mass of the possible additional planet (Planet Nine) hypothesized by Batygin and Brown (2016). We find that over broad regions of the sky, the inclusion…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2016-09-21 Matthew J. Holman , Matthew J. Payne

Using Chandra ACIS-S, we have obtained imaging Xray spectrophotometry of the Pluto system in support of the New Horizons flyby on 14 July 2015. 174 ksec of observations were obtained on 4 visits in Feb 2014 to Aug 2015. We measured a net…

This work investigates the use of stellar occultation measurements to enhance the orbit determination performance of the Lunar Meteoroid Impact Observer (LUMIO) mission, operating from a quasi-Halo orbit around the Earth-Moon L2 point.…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2025-09-05 Davide Banzi , Riccardo Lasagni Manghi , Marco Zannoni

Context: When the planet transits its host star, it is possible to measure the planetary radius and (with radial velocity data) the planet mass. For the study of planetary atmospheres, it is essential to obtain transit and occultation…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2013-03-28 M. Lendl , M. Gillon , D. Queloz , R. Alonso , A. Fumel , E. Jehin , D. Naef

A stellar occultation of Gaia DR3 2646598228351156352 by the Centaur (2060) Chiron was observed from the South African Astronomical Observatory on 2018 November 28 UT. Here we present a positive detection of material surrounding Chiron from…

Pluto's surface is geologically complex because of volatile ices that are mobile on seasonal and longer time scales. Here we analyzed New Horizons LEISA spectral data to globally map the nitrogen ice, including nitrogen with methane diluted…

Observations of Pluto's companion planet Charon have so far yielded no compelling evidence for a persistent atmosphere. However, with the upcoming encounter of New Horizons at the Pluto-Charon system, sensitivity to detection of a possible…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2016-05-31 Joshua A. Kammer , S. Alan Stern

A stellar occultation by the large trans-Neptunian object (90482) Orcus was predicted to occur on 2017 March 07. Observations were made at five sites in North and South America. High-speed, visible-wavelength images were taken at all sites,…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2026-02-19 A. A. Sickafoose , A. S. Bosh , S. E. Levine , C. A. Zuluaga , A. Genade , K. Schindler , T. A. Lister , M. J. Person

With high-resolution spectroscopy we can study exoplanet atmospheres and learn about their chemical composition, temperature profiles, and presence of clouds and winds, mainly in hot, giant planets. State-of-the-art instrumentation is…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2023-02-22 M. Lafarga , M. Brogi , S. Gandhi , H. M. Cegla , J. V. Seidel , L. Doyle , R. Allart , N. Buchschacher , M. Lendl , C. Lovis , D. Sosnowska

Observations of Pluto and its solar-tidal stability zone were made using the Advanced Camera for Surveys' (ACS) Wide Field Channel (WFC) on the Hubble Space Telescope on UT 2005 May 15 and UT 2005 May 18. Two small satellites of Pluto,…

Data from the New Horizons mission to Pluto show no craters on Sputnik Planum down to the detection limit (2 km for low resolution data, 625 m for high resolution data). The number of small Kuiper Belt Objects that should be impacting Pluto…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2016-02-17 David E. Trilling

The New Horizons spacecraft will achieve a wide range of measurement objectives at the Pluto system, including color and panchromatic maps, 1.25-2.50 micron spectral images for studying surface compositions, and measurements of Pluto's…

The space probe 'New Horizon' was launched on 19th of January 2006 in order to study Pluto and its moons. Spacecraft will fly by Pluto as close as 12500 km in the middle of July 2015 and will get the most detailed images of Pluto and its…

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-01 Alexander V. Devyatkin , Ekaterina A. Bashakova , Viacheslav Yu. Slesarenko

During the New Horizons spacecraft's encounter with Pluto, the Alice ultraviolet spectrograph conducted a series of observations that detected emissions from both the interplanetary medium (IPM) and Pluto. In the direction of Pluto, the IPM…